Revlon Emerald City

     Hi guys! I was organizing my computer files and found these pictures hanging out, so I thought it would be good to post them. If for no other reason than to signify that I'm still alive LOL. So here's Revlon Emerald City!

Emerald City is a forest green base with tons of emerald green shimmer, all in a semi-matte finish.

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

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     Emerald City features a pretty and rich shade of green, and I always love matte shimmers. What I don't like is the waxy finish. I know that some people prefer their mattes to have a hint of shine, but I love mine chalky and dry looking. No shine at all. With Emerald City, I'd have to apply either a matte or shiny topcoat, because I wouldn't be able to just wear it on its own. And since I generally reach for mattes when I'm pressed for time or energy, the need for topcoat totally defeats the purpose.

   Formula-wise, Emerald City was interesting because objectively, it was fine. Went on smoothly, became opaque in about three coats, and dried fairly fast. But for a matte, it was kind of terrible because I expect my mattes to be much more opaque and to dry almost instantly. With Emerald City, there was an actual period of waiting. Like about thirty minutes before it was completely dry and undentable, without the use of topcoat. 

   So while I like the color, Emerald City has to go. I like my mattes convenient and this one is5 kind of not.

And that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and have a beautiful day!

P.S. I haven't forgotten that I promised you guys a giveaway. It's coming, I just need some time to get everything ready. ^_^

Revlon Mistletoe (Part 2)

    Hi guys! A while ago, I wore Revlon Mistletoe from their new holiday collection and hated it. It was gross and ugly and I just did not like it at all. I couldn't return it because I lost the receipt, (-____-) so I just added some thinner to it and gave it another go. Here's how it went:

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    I didn't have the textural issues again, so it turned out much better. Besides adding the thinner, I made sure to wait like five minutes between coats this time, and I guess both of those helped out. But I still don't like Mistletoe...it still looks a bit on the flat side to me, and the color is a so muddled and uninspiring. But I've learned my lesson...no more impulse buys and no more losing receipts. x_x

But that's all from me today. 

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Saturday!!

More Color Club Poptastics

    Hi guys!! First of all, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a satisfying 2011, and that 2012 will be even better. To be honest, I'm really anxious about this year...this spring will be my very last semester as an undergrad and I don't know what to do next. I've been in school literally for as long as I can remember. So this will be...interesting, I guess.


Secondly, I have to say sorrrryyy again for being such a bad blogger lately. It's partially because I've been busy and partially because my heart isn't in polish and blogging so much anymore. I think I'm getting bored with it all...it just feels kind of futile, you know? I'm trying to get reinspired and fall in love with polish again, but idk...it's just not happening. And then it doesn't help that my nails are staging a rebellion. 


But anyway, I spent the holidays wearing mattes that I've worn already, so I don't really have anything nice to show you all. I did get a few other polishes from Color Club's Poptastic Collection swatched though, and can show you guys those. And all pictures are in sunlight, with no flash.


First up is the collection's namesake, Poptastic

   Poptastic is a pretty and bright neon pink. It's sweet and wearable, but not anything special and if it didn't come in the box set, I probably wouldn't have it. Formula-wise, it was okay. A little thin maybe, but not overly troublesome. Pictures are with three coats of polish and one layer of topcoat.

Next is Almost Famous.

      Almost Famous was a surprise for me because I really like it, despite my general aversion to yellows. I think it's just so bright and sunny that you can't help but like it lol. Formula was also surprise, in that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I used four coats of polish, but they went on pretty smoothly for a yellow. There was some streakiness and whatnot, but they covered up pretty nicely with more coats. 

Last is Wham! Pow! (their punctuation, not mine):

     Wham! Pow! is probably my favorite of these three. The shade of orange has a bit of extra red to it, which adds interest, and I love its level of brightness. It isn't a retina-searing polish, but it's still substantially bright, which makes it fun but still wearable. Application was also quite easy...three easy coats and I was all done. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading and listening to me whine, and I hope your holidays were all perfectly lovely!

Zoya Holly

       Hi guys! Like five hundred years ago, I posted Rina from Zoya's Gems and Jewels Collection. Today, I have her companion color, Holly. Also, excuse my awkward nubbins...I'm trying to sort them out, but my nails (not so) secretly hate me. -__-

Holly is a pretty straightforward green metallic shimmer. The name for it escapes me right now, but it's the same shade of green as a really lush Christmas tree. 

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Holly is quite pretty. The metallicy finish of it makes it look really smooth and sexy, and the shimmer gives it a nice bit of depth and richness. The shade of green is also nice to look at, and very appropriate for the season. However, I find it kind of hard to be excited about Holly, because it does feel a little generic. I can understand why Zoya would make it, because it does round out their lineup nicely, but because I have so many shimmery greens already, this one doesn't quite stand out for me. But if you don't have many greens and need to fill a shimmery-green-shaped hole in your collection, you could do way worse for yourself than Holly. 

    Holly's formula was okay. It needed three layers to be opaque, but they dried quickly and went on with no incident. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Friday!

A-England Lady of the Lake (Again)

  Hi guys! I busted up my nails and am dying of suffocation by homework, so here are A-Englad Lady of the Lake re-swatch pictures from the backlog. From back when I had fingernails and the time  and energy to polish them. *softly weeps*

Also, I took these on a field trip to the woods for a class (yeahh multi-tasking) and didn't want to bring the bottle because I knew I'd drop it on a rock or off a cliff or some shit like that.  So it's missing from the pictures...sorry about that. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash. 

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   I really love Lady of the Lake and all that jazz. 

I know this post sucks, but there will be better ones soon...finals are upon us, and that means there's a light at the end of the tunnel. *crawls towards light* I also promise to have a giveaway soon, because you guys deserve something nice for being so patient with me LOL.

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Zoya Rina

     Hi guys! With Thanksgiving behind us, the next big holiday is Christmas, which is also my favorite holiday!! It also helps that there is always an abundance of glitter polishes released around this time, and I am the biggest glitter whore ever. One of those collections this year was Zoya's Gems and Jewels Collection, and for you all today, I have Rina from that collection.

Rina is made of emerald green bar and square microglitter, as well as a sprinkling of holographic bar glitter. The holo glitter isn't too obvious, but if you look really close, you can see it.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

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This picture shows a little more of the holo glitter. 

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       I've never been a big fan of bar glitter, but Rina has totally made a believer out of me. It's so pretty and sparkly, and I love the richness of the shade of green. It looks like sparkling pine needles in a magical forest. Or tinsel, if you wanna be boring about it. Either way, it's gorgeous and absolutely screams Christmas! My only complaint is that I wish the holographic glitter was a little more prominent, because when I do see it, I love it, but I almost never see it. But that's a minor thing. 

       Rina's formula was pretty good. It was opaque in three coats, which is what you see in the pictures, and it dried pretty quickly and smoothly. I ended up using two layers of top coat, but I think it would have done fine with two. The only thing is that it looks kind of patchy before it gets opaque, so I definitely would not want to layer this over anything, except for maybe another green. In that way, I'd say Rina is a little...limited, I guess. And that's not fun. Also, it was messy to apply...it gunked up alot around the bottle neck and after I finished polishing, I had to go back and file the sharp bits of glitter off my tips. But once all that was done, it was totally worth it.

And that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

Strange Layering Stuff....

    Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday guys!! I hope you all had amazing Thanksgivings

, with lots of love, food and fun. I had a good one...I ended up doing a good chunk of the cooking, but it was fun and delicious in the end. And it's so nice to be away from school, I can't even explain. For today, I have that Facets of Fuchsia layering experiment that I mentioned at the end of that post. I put one layer of Diamond Cosmetics Chunky Red Glitter on top, and here's how it came out!

Sunlight, no flash.

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Natural light, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

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    So, like I said, I think it came out a little strange. I don't dislike it, but it just looked funny to me. Especially up close...the red glitter is just sitting on top of the purple and it just looks...funny. Maybe I would get more of the look I expected by frankening the two of these. But I do think it looks kind of cool, especially in lower light,  because the red glitter really pops out. 

And with that, I am all done for today!! I hope everyone has an awesome and fun Black Friday!  I know that I need a coat, and some new hair products, and I'll probably get in on the e.l.f. sale going on today. What are you guys gonna buy? ^_^